Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Bowe Bergdahl

08/09/2014

SAN ANTONIO — The civilian lawyer for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl says his profession isn't about the big cases, and the most important ones often involve obscure attorneys and fly below the public's radar.

But Eugene Fidell is one of the nation's best-known military lawyers. A Harvard Law School graduate who teaches at Yale, he's an expert on U.S. military justice and is touted by other attorneys as someone without peer in specialized military law.

Bergdahl was released in May after five years of captivity in a controversial swap for five Taliban prisoners. He was quickly vilified by many after his release in Afghanistan and eventual transfer to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, where he remains while his case is investigated.

08/06/2014

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl met Wednesday with an Army officer who is investigating allegations of misconduct while he was in Afghanistan, a session one defense lawyer called a "productive exercise."

Bergdahl talked with Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl for most of the day at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston with a military defense attorney, Capt. Alfredo Foster, and a civilian lawyer, Yale Law School lecturer Eugene Fidell, at his side.

Fidell declined to say what questions were asked, but said Bergdahl talked after being read his rights.

SAN ANTONIO — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl met Wednesday with an investigator who is probing allegations of misconduct while the soldier was in Afghanistan.

Flanked by a military defense attorney, Capt. Alfredo Foster, and Yale Law School visiting lecturer Eugene Fidell, who is his civilian lawyer, Bergdahl sat in an office at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

Fidell said his client was read his rights as part of an interview with Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl. An audio recording was made during the question-and-answer session at the Army Criminal Investigation Command's office on the post.

“We've met all morning, we're on a lunch break and then we're going to resume the interview,” Fidell said, declining to say what questions Dahl asked. “But I can tell you he's been entirely cooperative with the process and has answered all questions.”

07/16/2014

SAN ANTONIO — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has hired a high-profile attorney and may have met Wednesday with an investigator looking into allegations of misconduct while Bergdahl was in Afghanistan.

Lawyer Eugene Fidell denounced leaks by government officials as “disturbing” and likened some of the accusations against his client to the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth campaign that damaged former Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.

“There are people who have spoken that have vilified him in the media, sometimes using their own names and sometimes not,” Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale, told the San Antonio Express-News. “He's been turned into a kind of punching bag in some circles, and my job is to defend him.”

07/14/2014

SAN ANTONIO — A month after arriving in San Antonio for the third and final stage of his rehabilitation process, former prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl went to work at a desk job Monday at U.S. Army North in San Antonio.

He'll perform administrative duties at the headquarters on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, but it was unclear what precisely his job would entail.

“He's going to be doing soldier duties commensurate with his rank and qualifications,” said Don Manuszewski, a spokesman for Army North. “Like anybody else, he'll go through a period of training to go through our processes and procedures.”

The move ends six weeks of closely scrutinized counseling, four of them in San Antonio under an Army South program designed to slowly ease former prisoners back into society. He is living in noncommissioned officers quarters on Fort Sam and can come and go as he pleases from the post.

07/02/2014

SAN ANTONIO — The Army said Wednesday that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the American POW released in a prisoner swap with the Taliban, has gone into San Antonio for dinners and other excursions, and that he has been welcomed by people he meets.

So far, Bergdahl has left Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston about 10 times as part of a carefully staged plan to help him readjust to freedom.

“I can't give you specifics, just because I don't want people camping out at those places, but he's gone to restaurants, he's gone to supermarkets, he's gone to stores out in town and he's gone to the same places on post,” Army South spokeswoman Arwen Consaul said.

06/13/2014

SAN ANTONIO — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, on American soil for the first time after five years of captivity, joined the ranks of patients Friday at Brooke Army Medical Center, but he wasn't a typical soldier on the mend there.

The Army won't allow a television in his hospital room, and he isn't allowed yet to mingle and talk with other soldiers. Bergdahl is surrounded by experts trained to help former captives readjust. He hasn't asked to talk with his parents, who waged a well-publicized campaign to secure his freedom.

And after 12 days at an Air Force hospital in Germany, Bergdahl also isn't aware of the controversy that has exploded across the country about the circumstances of his capture and release.

SAN ANTONIO — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was released in a prisoner swap after being held for five years by the Taliban, is expected to arrive Friday in San Antonio after spending more than a week in Germany.

“He is scheduled to arrive tomorrow,” said a defense official, who would not elaborate.

Bergdahl will be brought to the San Antonio Military Medical Center, where doctors will help him become reoriented after his years in captivity. He is expected to reunite with his parents here as part of what the military calls a reintegration process.